Services & Support

Email & Hosting Frequently Asked Questions

How do I set up my e-mail using Outlook or Outlook Express?

Information for Setting up Your E-Mail Software

Before going further with these instructions, verify that you have an e-mail address hosted by JohnsonServices and that you know your e-mail address and
password. Go to mail.johnsonservices.net and login with your e-mail address and password. If you are able to login, then you are ready to continue. If not, you must contact the person in your office who is responsible for administering e-mail addresses (your e-mail domain administrator) to get your correct e-mail address and password. If you are the e-mail domain administrator and are having difficulty, please complete a support request so that we may properly assist you.

Once you have verified that your e-mail is hosted with JohnsonServices and that you know your correct e-mail address and password, please complete the following in order to continue with setup:

How do I get my Email while I'm on the road?

Information for Setting up Your E-Mail Software

Before going further with these instructions, verify that you have an e-mail address hosted by JohnsonServices and that you know your e-mail address and
password. Go to www.johnsonservices.com/mail and login with your e-mail address and password. If you are able to login, then you are ready to continue. If not, you must contact the person in your office who is responsible for administering e-mail addresses (your e-mail domain administrator) to get your correct e-mail address and password. If you are the e-mail domain administrator and are having difficulty, please complete a support request so that we may properly assist you.

Once you have verified that your e-mail is hosted with JohnsonServices and that you know your correct e-mail address and password, please complete the following in order to continue with setup:

Why is there so much more spam than before?

Since the first spam message was sent over 25 years ago (documented at least as far back as 1978), the problem has continued to escalate. It wasn't until the past couple of years, though, that enough people had e-mail, and were able to receive graphic-laden messages, that this really became a problem.

Sure, we occasionally received one or two junk e-mails, but we simply ignored them or deleted them. Now, though, these unwanted e-mails have become as prolific as the products they represent. In 2003 the consensus was that about 45% of all e-mail messages were considered spam. By the beginning of 2004, that number had reached more than 60% and by some estimates that number is now nearly 90%.

Back in 2002, JohnsonServices began scanning incoming e-mails for viruses and certain types of spam on a trial basis. And although anti-virus technologies seem to work well, spam has proven more difficult to eradicate. What constitutes spam for some may be vital industry news for others.

Spam has now increased so much that we have had to end our anti-virus/anti-spam trial. JohnsonServices will continue to provide e-mail anti-virus and anti-spam solutions on an optional basis to those who wish to subscribe. Otherwise, there are many other anti-spam solutions available from third parties.

What can I do to reduce the amount of spam I get?

There are many ways to manage spam. Our goal here is to provide you with links and explanations to third-party services and other options you may have as well as a form to request these services from JohnsonServices. We do not support any of the third party options mentioned, nor do we warrant that the services are reliable or safe.

Some spam options you may wish to review include:

Anti-Spam / Anti-Virus Services:

Simply click here for more information and to request we add these services to your account.

Third-Party Services

Email Software Options:

These are options that are provided by your e-mail software directly. They do not require any further subscription fees beyond the purchase price, if any, of the software itself.

These are add-in programs that "hook" into your current e-mail software to provide services that would otherwise be unavailable to you with your chosen software. Rather than list each one, please see this comparison page for details.

Third-Party Filtering Services:

These are services provided by third parties. Your e-mail is re-routed to their servers where they provide the spam and virus filtering for you. There is a monthly or annual fee associated with these services. The advantage here is that they maintain all the updates necessary and there is no additional software to add to your computer that might interfere with your normal day-to-day operations. The disadvantage is the cost. However, the costs may be less than the benefits obtained.

How do I change my e-mail password?

After your email is set-up, we will either provide you with the password, or use the password you have suggested to us. If you would later like to change that password, here is what you need to do:

You can change your password any time you wish by clicking on the link below, then enter your full e-mail address for the mailbox and then your password as it is now in the password box.

Click on login and then change your password there. When you're ready, just click on Apply and you're done. If you are using Outlook Express, the next time you try to check your email, a pop-up box will appear telling you that the password is wrong and to reenter it. Go ahead and enter your new password. Be sure the box is checked to "save" your password if you do not want to have to enter it every time you check your mail.

Keep in mind that if you do allow Outlook Express to save your e-mail, then anyone using your computer will be able to read your messages or send e-mail as if they were you.

I don't think all my e-mails are going through.

Why might they be blocked? What can I do about it?

Spam continues to be a problem despite everyone's best efforts. Because of the design of the entire e-mail system, truly solving the problem may require a totally new system. Until something like that happens, eliminating spam won't be possible. But reducing it is something we can all work towards.

On our end, we have now found an acceptable server-based spam solution which we can provide to your Johnson Services' hosted mailboxes at a reasonable price. Complete a service request for details or to sign up.

If you have already signed up, click here for instructions on maintaining your e-mail.

There are also several steps you can take as well. Be sure to use an e-mail account from Yahoo, Hotmail, GMail or other free service whenever you are providing an address to an untrusted website. If you suddenly start receiving a lot of spam at that e-mail address, you can easily cancel the account and open another. This helps keep your business-related e-mail address away from those sites. Also, if your e-mail address is listed on your website, consider removing it and replacing it with a contact form. Many spammers use automated "robots" to collect e-mail addresses from websites. If your address is not displayed, they can't get it. The contact form allows contact with your website visitors to continue without too much inconvenience.

You can also use Outlook's Junk Mail filters, or use other junk mail filters on your own computer. A quick Google search on "spam outlook" should yield several acceptable free or low cost solutions.

If you need additional assistance, please complete a service request.

Can you explain the statistics report you send to me each week?

Your Weekly Statistics: Why the report? What does it show? Can I get more details?

Each week, bright and early Sunday morning, you will receive an e-mail from us. This e-mail will have the heading: Executive Report for the Week Of dd/mm/yyyy --- yourweb. The dd/mm/yyyy is the first day of the week for that report. (Our statistics software is from a Canadian company, so they list the day first). The "yourweb" is replaced by the name of your website. This e-mail is a recap of the statistics of visitors to your website. We offer this service as part of our basic web hosting package and there is no extra charge for it. We also offer an enhanced statistics package that allows you to see how many people are visiting your website "live," as well as prepare various past reports spanning the past year's visits to your website.

The report is a weekly summary of visitors to your website for the past week starting from Sunday morning at 12:01am through the following Saturday night at midnight. You can see how many people visited your website, how many pages they looked at and how long they stayed. The report also shows which pages they looked at the most, and which they looked at the least, and how they got there, among other things.

The biggest question most people have is "how many people visited my website?" Ironically, it's also the one question no one can truthfully answer correctly, but we can make some educated guesses. That's what the "visits" figures represent on your report. The "total number of visits" is an estimate of how many different times someone visited your web site.

"Total hits made on the server" is what you often here people quoting, but it's a misleading number. Each graphic and each page counts as a hit. For example, but looking at this page, you have added at least seven hits to our "hits" count -- one for our logo at the top, five for the five navigation buttons on the left and one for the text. (In reality, you actually created 12 hits because each button on the left is actually two buttons. One you see when the page loads, the other you see when you scroll your mouse over the button).

So, hits is probably not the most reliable indication of your website's popularity when trying to compare it to someone else. The more little graphics you put on your page, the more "hits" you will get, but they are all still just one page. And this brings us to the next item, total page views. Page views is actually the first section on your report and is arguably the most important section on the report. Page views tell you how many actual pages people looked at. Page views should always be greater than visits if your website has more than one page. If the two numbers are close, that means many people are only looking at your home page and are not looking deeper.

Now, spend a moment to look over your weekly report and familiarize yourself with each section Each of the items can be useful to you in planning your website and any revisions you might have. For example, if the majority of your visitors only looked at one page of your website and did not stay long, perhaps it's time to modernize and update that page to get them to stay around. (The technical term for this is "stickiness." Although there is some debate on this issue, generally it is agreed that the more "sticky" your website, the more successful it is).

An important use of the statistics is to determine how people are getting to your website. We have greatly expanded the information we show on the referrals section of your report. You can now see how people got to your site, through which search engine, or if they came directly. You can see which keywords they used for their search, etc. If the vast majority of people are not using search engines, then it means they had to find out about your site in some other way -- such as from your business cards, newspaper ads, or word of mouth. If you are a retail business, you will want your non-Internet marketing campaigns to draw attention to your website, but you would also want high visibility on the search engines. With the referrer activity analysis, you can see who referred a visitor to you -- was it a search engine or another directory? Do you belong to an association? If so, are they referring people to you?

Can I get more info?

Well, glad you asked. Sure. We have other optional services that provide you a password to access the web statistics server directly. From there you can see graphs of trends for up to the past year, or over an hourly basis. You can get more detailed reports of all kinds. We even have available a "Who's On" report that will actually show you how many people are looking at your website at the time you are checking the statistics. Not only can you see how many, but you can see where they are dialing in from. If you're interested in our enhanced statistics services, let us know. Just send an e-mail to info@johnsonservices.com or give us a call at (727) 561-9333.

What is the "domain renewal" fee?

There are two main recurring fees associated with a website. The first one is the domain registration fee. The second is the website hosting fee. Usually e-mail services are also provided as a part of website hosting, but not always.

The domain registration fee is paid to your registrar (such as Network Solutions, BulkRegister, eNom, or Johnson Services) and provides a way to inform the world that you are the owner of the domain name. Usually the fee is paid annually, but can be paid in advance if preferred. The fee through Johnson Services is $25.00. (Note that you may find less expensive registrars, but if you sign up with us, we can maintain your domain record for you. If you sign up elsewhere, you will be responsible for ensuring that the DNS records and contact information are always correct).

The website hosting fee is the second recurring fee and is paid to Johnson Services in exchange for us providing the infrastructure that allows others to visit your website. The hosting fee is billed on a monthly basis (with discounts available for prepayments).

You can think of this much in the terms of a vehicle. You pay your auto tag / motor vehicle department for your annual registration service. This notifies everyone that you own the vehicle. But that doesn't mean it's going to go anywhere. Not till you pay the gas station to fill up with gas are you going to get anywhere. The gas station might also provide oil changes and air for the tires, but you could also get those services elsewhere.